The day of the "FOOTBALL FOR FRIENDSHIP 2016 IN MILANO" tournament.
On a sunny day, the players had a hearty breakfast and are full of energy!
After about a 20-minute bus ride from the hotel, we arrived at the venue.
This tournament features one team from 32 countries, with 4 teams divided into 8 groups for the preliminary league.
The regulation states that the top two teams will advance to the Final Round.

The opening ceremony is over, and finally, the first match.
The opponent in the first match is FC Kairat from Kazakhstan.
The players, who appeared somewhat nervous due to it being their first match, were overwhelmed by the atmosphere and couldn't move their bodies as they wanted.
Tokyo took the lead with the first goal, but they were caught up, resulting in a fierce battle ending in a 2-2 draw.
 

The next match will be against Beşiktaş from Turkey, which has a large physique and strong physicality.
The players are gradually easing their tension and starting to show their abilities.
The match begins with Natsui Watanabe's opening goal. However, as the sun becomes stronger and fatigue starts to show, they concede an equalizing goal.
Despite continuing to push forward to score the winning goal, they allowed a goal just before the end and lost 1-2.

The third match against FK Crvena Zvezda, featuring seven players from Serbia's youth national team, was approached with the situation that there was no way to advance from the qualifying league other than victory.
The team is united in aiming for victory, trying to seize the flow of the match with fierce battles for the ball and physical plays, but they are struggling to capitalize on their chances.
However, they allowed the opponent to score just before the end of the match and lost 0-1.

As a result, their elimination from the qualifying league has been decided, and the challenge of learning through the players' performance has come to an end.

The tournament has ended, but when I returned to the hotel, an international exchange event was held.
Exchange pin badges with people from 32 countries!
The players actively engaged in one of the purposes of this expedition, 'international exchange', and some players collected pin badges from all 32 countries, showing very satisfied smiles!

Tomorrow, I will watch another learning experience, the 'Watch and Learn' Final Round of the Champions League.